In partnership with the Manitoba Craft Council, Gallery 1C03 at the University of Winnipeg is pleased to host SHARDS: Contemporary artists in conversation with the ceramics of our forebearers. Curated by Jenny Western, SHARDS is a group exhibition featuring the work of four Indigenous female artists – KC Adams, Jaime Black, Lita Fontaine and Niki Little – in conversation with the 2000+ years old archaeological ceramic shards collections of the Manitoba Museum and the University of Winnipeg. SHARDS incorporates both new and old ceramics as well as artworks created in response to the shards and reflective of our past, present, and future as shared stewards of this territory.

Indigenous pottery shards uncovered by archeologists suggest that ceramic craft and artistry have been practiced in the region currently known as Manitoba for well over 2,000 years. These ceramic pots are believed to have been made as cooking vessels, formed from the clay left here by the prehistoric Lake Agassiz and fired with wood from the area's boreal forest. Scholars believe that the creators of these pots were woman, most likely mothers feeding and caring for their families through their act of ceramic creation. Although their names are unknown, there is a kinship among the pots' original makers and the four artists who make up the SHARDS exhibition; they are connected as creators, as women, and as inhabitants of this land.

The Winnipeg Arts Council is located on Treaty 1 Territory and on the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene Peoples and in the homeland of the Métis Nation. We offer our respect and gratitude to the traditional caretakers of this land.